LAKE TEXANA

LAKE TEXANA. Lake Texana, in east central Jackson County, was constructed by the United States Bureau of Reclamation and in 1988 was the only major reservoir project in the Lavaca River basin. The lake is a program of the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority and supplies municipal and industrial water to numerous communities within the region. The lake was formed by Palmetto Bend Dam, an enterprise approved by Congress in 1968 and completed in 1979. The dam is a rolled earth-filled structure eight miles in length with a maximum crest elevation of fifty-five feet. The project derives its name from the dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor), a common bottomland plant in the area. The lake is named after the town of Texana, established in 1832 near the junction of the Navidad and Lavaca rivers. Palmetto Bend Dam backs up water from the Navidad River for a distance of eighteen miles, forming a reservoir with about 11,000 surface acres, 125 miles of shoreline, and a storage of 170,000 acre-feet. The land along the banks of Lake Texana supports a wide variety of plant species, including live oak, post oak, and fewer pecan, water oak, American elm, cedar elm, Texas sugarberry, red mulberry, and hawthorn trees.